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Thomas Storer
Thomas Storer (1571-1604) was an English poet. Life Overview Storer was born in London, and educated at Oxford. He wrote a long poem, The Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal.John William Cousin, "Storer, Thomas," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 363. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 5, 2018. Biographical details Storer was born in 1571, the son of John Storer, a citizen of London. He was elected a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1587, and graduated with a B.A. on 27 March 1591, and an M.A. on 13 May 1604. At Oxford, says Wood, "he was had in great renown for his most excellent vein in poesy."Seccombe, 425. He died in London in November 1604, and was buried in the church of St. Michael Bassishaw in the city. Writing In 1599 appeared The Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinall.... By Thomas Storer, student of Christ Church in Oxford. At London printed by Thomas Dawson’ 4to. The poem, which is written upon the model of Churchyard's legend on the history of Wolsey in The Mirrour for Magistrates, consists of 3 parts or cantos, ‘Wolseius aspirans,’ ‘Wolseius triumphans,’ and ‘Wolseius moriens;’ these contain respectively 101, 89, and 51 7-line stanzas of decasyllabic verse (rhyming a-b-a-b-b-c-c). The volume is dedicated to John Howson, Queen Elizabeth's chaplain, and there are introductory verses by Charles Fitzgeffrey and Thomas and Edward Michelborne, and a poem in 15 8-line stanzas addressed to the author by his fellow-collegian, John Sprint. The poem is carefully based upon the narratives of Cavendish and Holinshed, and, sententious though it is, contains some happily expressed characterizations, notably that of Richard Foxe, bishop of Winchester, :A man made old to teach the worth of age. The poem was warmly praised by Dr. Alberic Gentilis in his Laudes Academiæ Perusinæ et Oxoniensis (1605, 41), and Aubrey commends its historic veracity (Letters from the Bodleian Library, 1813, i. 145). Malone has unconvincingly conjectured that Storer's poem may have suggested the subject of Wolsey's fall to Shakespeare when he wrote King Henry VIII. Early in the 18th century Thomas Hearne, having long sought in vain for a copy, at length procured 1 for a shilling. In more recent times the price of a copy of the 1st edition has ranged from 10 to 20 guineas (the British Museum has 3 copies, and there are also copies at Britwell, in the Huth Library, and in the Malone collection at the Bodleian). The Life was reprinted in Park's Heliconia (1815, vol. ii.), and reissued separately in 1826 from the press of Talboys at Oxford. According to Wood, in addition to the Life of Wolsey, Storer published some "Pastoral Aires and Madrigals," which "were afterwards remitted into a book called Englands Helicon;” but this appears to be a mistake. No lyrics by Storer are included in Englands Helicon, but in England's Parnassus (1600) are a score or so of specimens of his workmanship; they are derived from the Life of Wolsey, and display the elaborate style of metaphor in which the poet excelled. Some verses by Storer are prefixed to Sir William Vaughan's Golden Grove (1600). Publications *''The Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinall.'' London: Thomas Dawson, 1599; Oxford, UK: Tallboys & Wheeler, 1826. See also *List of British poets References *Chambers, Robert (1880), Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, (New York: American Book Exchange) * . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 6, 2018. Notes Category:1570s births Category:1604 deaths Category:People of the Tudor period Category:17th-century English poets Category:Writers from London Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:16th-century English people Category:17th-century English people Category:16th-century poets Category:17th-century poets Category:English male poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:People from London